Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt has pledged the provision of £230 million to support the introduction of new technology in policing.
He has included the investment as part of the spending plans within the Government’s Spring Budget 2024.
The document says the money will be used to pilot or support the roll out of “cutting edge technology” such as live facial recognition, automation and drones as first responders – steps that were flagged up last week in a speech by Hunt on public sector productivity.
They will be complemented by the setting up of a Centre for Police Productivity to support forces’ use of data and delivery of the technology.
Time savers
In his Budget speech, Hunt said: “We will spend £230 million rolling out time and money saving technology which speeds up police response time by allowing people to report crimes by video call and where appropriate use drones as first responders.”
The document points to a further investment in law enforcement to the tune of £34 million for the Public Sector Fraud Authority to deploy AI solutions. It says this could provide savings of £100 million for the public purse.
The announcement brought a generally positive from the National Police Chiefs' Council. Andrew Pughsley, lead reviewer in its policing productivity team, commented: "We welcome the Government’s investment in policing technology as outlined today.
"We’re pleased the work of our independent team has highlighted the huge time savings that could be achieved through better use of technology; time that could be spent attending more burglaries, more cases of domestic abuse, more incidents of antisocial behaviour.
"The Policing Productivity Review has found that technology can enable the acceleration of existing tasks – such as redacting documents for use in court - and provide less resource-intensive ways of delivering services, for example by rapid video response; something that has been well received by victims of domestic abuse.
"Around 97% of today’s science and technology investment in policing is spent on maintaining existing systems. There is a balance to be struck between ensuring these tools are fit for purpose and making the most of new innovations. Policing cannot afford to fall behind in this area which is why today’s funding announcement is so important."
